5/12 email

Gerry and other Members of the Budget Committee:

I hope you are recovering well from your surgery, and thanks for your thoughts to the committee. Carlos and I are always willing to attend a budget committee meeting convened by the chair, and our office can assist with scheduling.

The President and I have consulted with both the Personnel and Budget Committee and the College Council and Faculty Senate Executive Committees, telling them we should plan for cuts between 10 and 50% in the adjunct budget.

Unfortunately, our ability to make decisions is impacted by 2 factors outside of our control- the budget allocation from the State to CUNY (including how much any federal assistance will be offset by cuts) and the need to make determinations by contractual deadlines.

Last week I met with the Deans and directed them to work with the chairs to effect what amounts to a 35% cut of the overall adjunct budget in order to be sure that non-reappointments resulting from these cuts were delivered to adjunct faculty by the contractual deadline.

Each Dean was charged with working with the chairs to see how those cuts could be sustained within their divisions overall, not necessarily by across-the-board cuts. All of us would have liked more time to consult and make decisions, but we need to be prepared to move forward with decisions. Over the next few days, I will be reviewing the proposed cuts and discussing with the Deans.. Should the contractual deadline be changed, we will further review these actions and consult consistent with the governance plan with the hope that we will have better information on the budget.​Importantly, we will make adjustments that make programmatic as well as financial sense.

Again, Carlos and I are happy to participate in and help schedule a budget committee meeting whenever the committee chair wants to schedule one. ​

Sincerely

Michael